The Butcher of Hogsmeade

Chapter 133 Time Travel to the Future

The Minister of Magic remained silent, and Si Ping also felt that Professor Crocker's actions were beyond reproach: the Silent Ones were responsible for the most cutting-edge and mysterious magical research, and Professor Crocker, as the head of the Time Hall, was simply doing his job in conducting such experiments.

Furthermore, the Time-Turner itself is not an unforgivable curse. Although it is strictly managed, it is not absolutely forbidden to use it. In fact, Hogwarts professors would submit an application to the Department of Mysteries every few years or decades to apply for access to the Time-Turner for a particularly outstanding student.

While it's rare to find a student who has all twelve 0.WLS certificates, one does appear every three to five or six to seven years. Without a time converter, how would those top students attend classes?

"What should we do with him? Should we send him back to the right time?" The minister changed the subject.

"I don't think it's necessary," Professor Krock said.

"That won't do; the time traveler must return to the correct point in time."

"A time traveler must return to the point in time from which they depart, but Mr. Lukewood didn't go back to the past; he went to the future—at least for him," Professor Crocker explained. "He traveled through ninety minutes of time, and as long as no one discovers he's missing during those ninety minutes" and takes any action to interfere, then it doesn't matter whether he goes back or not. Ultimately, it's just that he himself lost ninety minutes of his life. I'm even more inclined to think that sending those who see the future back to the correct point in time would actually be detrimental to maintaining the order of time."

"Can you assure me that doing this is harmless? After all, the power of time has affected him." Deng

Blido's questions are more academic in nature.

Professor Crocker countered, "Do you know how Hogwarts students return to the correct point in time after using the Time-Turner?"

"Normally, they will go through the entire time rewind, which may be one hour or two hours, and then, avoiding everyone's sight, return to the time and place where they started the time rewind."

"Isn't that it?" Professor Krock said with a smile. "Time travel that begins with a time converter doesn't necessarily end with it. Based on my experience from those thirty-three experiments, traveling one to two hours into the future, as long as there's no external interference, can be considered a normal passage of time; that's the traveler's problem—they lose a small segment of their life for nothing."

Dumbledore nodded silently, agreeing with Professor Crocker's statement.

Students use the time converter to resolve class time conflicts, each use adding several hours of study time for themselves; while time travel to the future is equivalent to voluntarily skipping a period of time that belongs to them, and as long as the person doesn't mind, it doesn't matter whether they return to the correct point in time.

Judging from Professor Crocker's attitude, he himself did not choose to return to the correct time point when conducting the experiment. As for Lukewood's attitude—who cares what attitude a traitor like him has?

"Then have him sent to Azkaban." Millison frowned, feeling an urge to kick Lukewood a couple of times, but thankfully she restrained herself. "Perfect timing, there are Aurors and strikers here. Did you specifically ask me to bring them here for this man?"

"No, I invited them here for something far more important—the motives of these Death Eaters." Professor Crocker's tone suddenly turned extremely serious. "As a Silent Man, I don't consider myself of any great value that would warrant the Death Eaters risking their lives to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic and take action against me. If I were, that value wouldn't lie in me personally, but in my recent research. Minister, Professor Dumbledore, you should know better than anyone else why my recent research came about."

By the end, the Silent Man, Dumbledore, and Millicent had all focused their attention on Shen Hou.

"Is it because of me?" Shen Hou belatedly realized, still completely bewildered. "That can't be right, can it? I went back to forty-six years ago, not came from forty-six years ago: just like the Minister said, if you're going to study something, you should study how to conduct long-term time travel! You're not planning to use a time converter to send me directly back forty-six years in the future, are you?"

"With the current limitations of time converters, time travel spanning forty-six years is not feasible: it is impossible in the foreseeable future," Professor Krock said.

"Then why—"

"I have no intention of discussing academic matters with you here, Mr. Shen," the Silent Man interrupted Shen Hou. "What we should be considering now is the Death Eaters' motives. With Lukwood as an inside man, the Death Eaters must know that I am researching your time travel problem. Therefore, their attack on me is ultimately for you. You are the Death Eaters' ultimate target."

Shen Hou remained silent for a long while, then let out a long sigh and said, "Fortunately, they didn't succeed and didn't hurt you."

"Thank you for your concern, Mr. Shen, but I would not say they failed. In fact, they succeeded at least halfway," Professor Krock said gravely.

"What do you mean?" Not only Shen Hou, but everyone present looked concerned.

"You should notice that there was more than one damaged door in the rotunda."

Millison said, "Of course we know that the other open door leads to the Department of Mysteries' archives; I asked the other Silencers, and they all said that no important documents were lost, the place was just messed up, and it would be fine after a simple tidying up."

“My colleagues said that no important information was lost, simply because they didn’t know the document existed beforehand,” Professor Krock sighed. “It was an unfinished report of mine that I had carried with me for the past two months until last night when I put it in a drawer in the archives, intending to make final adjustments today.”

The minister frowned. "But it was stolen by the Death Eaters?"

Professor Crocker nodded helplessly: "After the attackers left and before the other Silent Ones arrived to rescue us, I went out of the Time Hall one last time to check the scene; I found the door to the archives had been damaged, and I immediately went to look for the document, only to find it was gone. The Death Eaters' objective was very clear: they were willing to abandon the missing Lukewood to ensure they took that document."

"The existence of that document was very likely due to Lukwood informing them?" Shen Hou looked down at the silent, expressionless mole. "So what exactly did that document say?"

Professor Kroc stared at Shen Hou, uttering only one word: "You."